A major online sportsbook executive has big sights set on a profitable state in 2025.
DraftKings co-founder Jason Robins said during the sports betting and iGaming company’s 2024 first-quarter conference call on Friday that Texas will be a huge focus next year from a legislative standpoint.
“I think Texas has a real shot,” Robins said. “(A sports betting bill) got through one chamber last year. The Texas legislature doesn’t meet in 2024 so we’re really gearing up for 2025.”
DraftKings is currently offering its gaming products to 49% of the population. It’s operating in 25 U.S. states, including a big one with New York. But the three most populated states in America – California, Texas, and Florida – are void of mass online legal sports betting.
“There’s only a handful of really big ones and when you kind of extend beyond the top three into five, six, seven states, you’re going to capture a lot of that,” Robins said. “Obviously, we made a push in Georgia this year and came up a little short.”
Everything is bigger in Texas
California has shown little momentum in the legislature, and there have been numerous obstacles and infighting among various groups, so it’ll be at least 2026 before there’s real movement in America’s most populated state.
Florida has just one mobile operator, the Seminole Tribe’s Hard Rock Bet, and even that’s still facing legal issues to stay running.
That leaves the Lone Star State, which a JMP Securities analyst said in March “would represent the largest sports betting jurisdiction in North America by revenue.”
Not only does Texas have a huge population, the Lone Star State is littered with professional and collegiate sports. Las Vegas Sands Corp. recently purchased the majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks with the intent of bringing in-person casinos into Texas.
Online casino expansion
Robins didn’t name any states in particular, but he sees more legislative moves toward iGaming in the near future.
Online casino revenue reached $1.26 billion in the first two months of 2024, according to the American Gaming Association. DraftKings is offering iGaming to just 11% of the population as only nine jurisdictions have legalized online casinos.
“I think that once the states in certain regions start moving on iGaming more, you’ll see a more rapid succession,” Robins said. “I also think the need for tax revenues is going to increase. I think there’s some delay in that with some of the COVID relief money that was sent to states.”
New York is an incredibly sought-after market, but iGaming bills have yet to be taken seriously there.
What’s next?
Aside from Texas sports betting, Robins said DraftKings will continue to help legislative efforts in non-legalized sports betting states as much as possible. One of those right now is Missouri, where a PAC dropped off more than 340,000 signatures from a sports betting petition at the Secretary of State’s office on Thursday.
DraftKings and FanDuel gave $250,000 each to the professional sports-led coalition Winning for Missouri Education, which aims to get sports betting on the November ballot.
Robins said DraftKings is also looking to cash in on its purchase of the Jackpot Lottery app, which sells digital tickets in several states. DraftKings purchased the company earlier this year and plans to expand into new states since it won’t take legislative changes to launch.
